These New Consoles Are Yet To Claim Their Own Identity

This isn’t about either console having no games. It’s about the fact that neither console really has anything earth-shattering of their own compared to last-gen . Many release scheduled games ended up being delayed and because of it, it feels like we’ve all been playing the waiting game. There has been an enormous drought which has been filled with ports and re-releases lifted from last-gen to give people something to play but ultimately, they’re last-gen games and we are in desperate need of current-gen games.(yes it’s current gen now) We’ve seen some great titles ported such as The Last Of Us which is a real treat if you haven’t already played it, and some ports of some games that people wouldn’t exactly hold in high regard. And there is even more on the horizon. It’s a companies easy chance to cash in and not have to take up too much work in the process. Re-releases are good for nostalgia and companies know nostalgia sells. It becomes a bit of a problem however when you’re line up consists of mainly re-releases and they are pushed out at the front to show potential new buyers what there is on new consoles but honestly, they’re only there to tide you over until the proper new big hitter are ready to rear their heads. But chances are, people won’t want to purchase the same game they played last year for full price. Including an expensive console with it to play it on. Another tactic seen in Playstation 4 in particularly, is it has been chocked full of indie offerings but indies aren’t for everyone. Some like-minded people are just holding out for the next triple A blockbuster from a large studio. These consoles were not expensive so to be absolutely blunt, playing something that looks like it was spat out of the 80s, isn’t what these people had in mind when purchasing one. They want games that cannot be experienced on last gen. More state-of-the-art graphics that couldn’t be achieved on last generation specs.

Indies and re-releases are all well and good but they shouldn’t account for a consoles proper line up and aren’t truly a reason to head out and buy a new console.

Playstation 3 had God Of War. We are yet to see anything from the main teams at Santa Monica studio. Heavy Rain. We still haven’t seen anything from David Cage and Quantic Dream. Little Big Planet. Yes we’re getting Little Big Planet 3 but it isn’t being made by it’s creator Media Molecule who haven’t revealed the title they are making for Playstation 4 yet. And there are many others, first party and third party which are still under wraps.

Xbox 360 had Halo. We are getting a new Halo but it’s going to be some time yet. Viva Pinata. An underrated title on the 360, nothing like it since from Microsoft’s Rare studio. Gears Of War. We haven’t had a Gears announcement yet or anything similar.

Better still, some completely new IP’s. Some fresh ideas and new gameplay mechanics to completely shake things up and rewrite what we’ve seen before it. In the games industry though, companies are afraid to take the risk with new IP and would rather make sequels to an already successfully established brand. It takes a lot of money to market a new IP too.

The mood should all change when titles like Driveclub, The Order, The Witcher 3 make an appearance. It feels like this gen hasn’t kicked off yet. We waited for Watchdogs hoping it would spring the consoles to life but the game didn’t quite live up to it’s promised expectations. 2015 is what 2014 should have been. Instead, we got off to a very slow start. Both consoles are even better prepared than last gen too. Share buttons and streaming, all ready and waiting to be used on some brand spanking new experiences.

We have been stuck in a cycle of the same games releasing and been tempted to buy them again just because they’ve been given a face lift. But it’s fundamentally the same game. So until we can see something completely new on the shelves, something that can’t be experienced on last-generation hardware, I don’t believe this generation has fully started yet.